Topic: Emirates From London In 1996Username: britannia25Posted 2013-09-18 06:38:21 and read 12452 times.

Hello

So I found a link to that departed flights website that gives you an overview of historic airline schedules etc..! I was looking at 1996 from London Heathrow and Gatwick and I noticed that Emirates did not fly to Dubai from Heathrow but operated 3 times per week to Abu Dhabi on a 777. Gatwick appeared to get one daily service on an A310. WOW, how things have changed!!! Is this timetable accurate? Now I was barely a teenager in 1996 but I had heard of Emirates and how good they were and I remember seeing one of their A300s (or maybe an A310) parked at MAN in 1996. Was their service from London really that limited back then (and it's not even that long ago).

I remember taking a TAROM flight from London to Bangkok and the schedule included one stop between Bucharest and Bangkok, but nobody could tell me where this stop was. Even the travel agent denied it stopped anywhere. However, sure enough we took off and after 4 hours or so started the descent for landing in Dubai. They bussed us to the terminal whilst they refueled the plane and I remember looking at some of the aircaft there - mostly Emirates A310s. The airport was a fairly simple building and I saw a bit of the city of Dubai itself and it was nothing special - a port and a city centre with a few new looking buildings - I did notice that all of the roads and the houses looked new and I guessed they had plenty of money to build whatever they wanted. This was in 1997, the last year that Hong Kong was still a British colony. How times change!

Hi britannia25,
Yes, that sounds about right. Emirates were gradually emerging as a name back then, I think they started serving LGW before LHR yes (perhaps due to Gulf Air serving LHR from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain?)
I remember my brother-in-law flying with Emirates from Frankfurt to Colombo and back via Dubai in the mid-90s: FrankfurtDubai was an A310, DubaiColombo was, I think, an A300. I remember that on one of the legs, my brother-in-law reported that every passenger received an Emirates-branded gift of some sort.
Those were the days...
All the best
djb77

I flew LGW-DXB (onto DXB-CMB-SIN-CGK, and later a simpler DXB-SIN-CGK) and back a few times back in those days (92-94). Both are A313 flights (the DXB-CMB non-CGK tag-on could have been A300)... But I do remember back then on one of the flights I flew LHR-DXB.

Nothing beats the feeling of DXB when you step off the plane in the heat, get bused to the terminal, and deboarded the bus greeted by a soldier with his sub-machine gun cocked (didn't see if the safety catch was on) greeting you with a smile (and the gun pointed towards me)... and then not be able to find an empty seat at the terminal...

Emirates used to fly from LGW to DXB in the early 1980s using an A310. I used to work there. We (staff) used to ask each other 'Where is this Dubai?' We all thought it was part of Saudi Arabia.

The flights were popular as an odd holiday destination for honeymooners and I guess that a lot of those pax were connecting in Dubai as they do now.

I applaud Emirates for having a bold livery which is as good today as it was way back then. I would say the stewards need to come out of the flesh coloured slacks now, but apart from that they have done well. It's good they have been so loyal to LGW too!

I remember the aviation community was shocked when they ordered 9 Boeing 777s in June 1992 (perhaps orders and options combined), they were still very obscure then, operating a few A-300s and 727s only, and people were discussing, how will they ever manage to fill up all these 777s, pay for these aircraft and make a profit?
And nowadays they have 129 and still adding about 1 or 2 a month...

They were definitely doing London by then with their brand new 777, the flight was 001/002 and they also do Abu Dhabi from LHRas was GF, that is all before EY, I remember they were one of the first to put in PTV on every seat.

Quoting MEA-707 (Reply 5):I remember the aviation community was shocked when they ordered 9 Boeing 777s in June 1992 (perhaps orders and options combined), they were still very obscure then, operating a few A-300s and 727s only, and people were discussing, how will they ever manage to fill up all these 777s, pay for these aircraft and make a profit?
And nowadays they have 129 and still adding about 1 or 2 a month...

Many YEARS later ... when they ordered dozens of A380s ... people were shocked again!!!

To make it more interesting, This was between 1992 - 94 I flew on EK A300 from DXB to LHR with a stop at AUH. the flight from DXB to AUH was very short about 20 min or less then passengers from AUH boarded the in continuation to LHR.

I remember (I have the photos too) seeing A6-EKA and A6-EKB I think it was, a pair of A310-300 that EK operated to LGW in the late 80s. As someone else has said, CMB, KHI and FRA were other early destinations for them. In those days Gulf Air, Saudia and Kuwait Airways were big boys from that region so to speak.

I worked for SQ in 1989 and I remember going to a company induction. Part of it was discussion of threats to the company. They identified EK as a major threat and I recall thinking at the time 'EK?, they have only got a couple of aircraft'. How right they were.